ID theft puts a felony on Foresthill man's record

FORESTHILL, CA - You could be a felon, and not even know it. That's exactly what happened to a Foresthill man, twice.

In June 1988, a man broke into a Dobb's Tire Store on Sunrise Boulevard in Rancho Cordova. Thanks to a store alarm, he was caught red-handed, but didn't have any identification.

So, the suspect gave police the name of high school acquaintance Jordan Herrington.

"They processed him, fingerprinted him and he did 90 days in jail," said the real Jordan Herrington, who had no way of knowing his record now listed him as a felon.

He didn't know for an entire year, until his tax return was withheld.

"(I) went down to the Sacramento Sheriff's Department, they took my fingerprint, they compared them and the mugshot to the one that had on file for the case and they confirmed it wasn't me," Herrington said. "At that moment, they said we're clearing this up."

And that was the end of that, so he thought.

Herrington now works in the logging industry, but he's trying to get a new job for a vendor to the Department of Defense.

So, on a whim, he ran a background check on himself and found that the 24-year-old felony he did not commit is still on his record.

His first call was to the sheriff's department.

"She told me it could be months, the DOJ services 54 counties, this really isn't a priority for them, and she said thank you very much," Herrington said.

News10 called the sheriff's department who acknowledged their was a problem with Herrington's record and said it would be fixed within a few days.

"I think there was probably a failure, possibly on our end, to notify the DOJ way back when," Deputy Jason Ramos said.

When told the good news, Herrington could only say, "excellent", with a very large smile on his face.

"Opportunities, especially in this environment with 11.9 percent unemployment just don't drop in your lap everyday," Herrington said. "I'd hate to see the opportunity pass me by because of something that I had no control over."

Background checks only costs about $25 and can help you find something that shouldn't be on there.